Around 3 this afternoon, something happened.
I know when it happened because the big clock radio on the end table started blinking and began counting from noon, which is what it does when it loses power for as much as a nanosecond. I didn’t notice for hours because the cold drink cup was blocking my view of its screen. It’s an angle thing.
Hours later, I noticed my computer’s battery was low. It shouldn’t have been because it’s plugged in. So, I looked down and saw the big surge protector into which everything is plugged, was off. I turned it on.
At some subsequent point in time, I searched for a saved email (in Gmail) which contained information I needed. It was missing. I checked in other folders, in case it was misfiled. That was when I realized every email I ever sent myself and saved in labeled folders, was gone. The folders weren’t empty. Email from anyone who wasn’t me was still there.
Only emails in folders were affected. Only emails addressed to me, from me, were deleted. The kind of thing I couldn’t do intentionally if my life depended on it. I’m not sure it’s possible to do it on purpose. Supposedly putting emails in labeled folders protects them from exactly this kind of disaster.
Lucky me, they hadn’t vanished entirely but had been moved to the trash.
For the past seven hours, I’ve been sifting through trashed emails, nicely blended with actual trash. I have to find my saved data, contacts. Conversations with authors, friends, utilities, banks, bloggers … everything I’ve done, ordered, negotiated. All the stuff thought I had backed up by saving the emails.
How could a global delete from all folders and sub-folders occur while leaving my inbox untouched? Yet it happened. Did one of the dogs step on the surge protector and turn it off? Did that somehow trigger a global delete of emails addressed to me, from me? How? What else happened that I haven’t yet discovered?
I’m tired. I’ve got a headache. I can’t empty my real email trash until I’m sure I’ve retrieved all the stuff that matters. Thousands of emails are sitting in the trash folder awaiting my attention. I’ve restored a couple of hundred, but haven’t looked at the rest. It’s overwhelming.
What happened? Anyone have a clue? I’m all ears.
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Categories: Computers, Computers, Software, Technology, You can't make this stuff up
SO CRAZY. It drives us CRAZY! My email is still a mess (new provider), but my computer seems to be getting over the flu… Fingers crossed and prayers. 🙂
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We are dependent on our electronics … and our providers are so UNdependable. And everything depends on everything else and when it fails … and it does fail regularly … we are so screwed.
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Gremlins in the system. Hope things get sorted out soon. Sorry I can’t help you. My son has only just started his computer degree. In 3 years I can help.
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There’s nothing I could do about it regardless. The balls are all in other servers’ courts — Google, Charter, National Grid. I’m just a customer, I don’t own the equipment.
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You’re guess is as good as mine…
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My guess is that Charter is somehow at the root of the problem. They usually are.
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That is one of those amorphous things about this technology, so much is hidden and there is little you can do to verify things.
Leslie
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And so much of it is not in your control. That’s the thing about “cloud” service. It’s theirs. Not yours. If something is broken, you can’t fix it. I’ve always been suspicious of these “services.” Sometimes being right isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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I avoid the cloud as much as possible.
Leslie
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Me too, but for email, you don’t really have a choice. I do not store ANYTHING ELSE in anyone’s cloud except things that actually belong to them … my Kindle library and my Audible.com libraries live there because there’s no way I could store them here. But all my personal work? Photographs? Writing that isn’t on my blog? That’s on my own drives. I have to admit I do not store my blog posts. There are nearly 3200 of them, much too much to manage. If the blog blows up, I’ll take it as a sign from the gods that it’s time to quit!
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That’s a cool reflection shot in the clock by the way. You can clearly be seen raising your camera to your eye to take the picture.
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I know. I wish I looked better. Not a very flattering selfie.
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You don’t need to sharpen it anymore. LOL
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eek! :::burns sage and waves it around:::
:::coughs because I hate the smell of burning sage:::
Seriously, though, that’s awful. Good news is you found things in the trash but, gah… I’d need some serious drink fortification to weed through all of that.
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I can’t drink, but whatever drugs I’ve got (all, sadly, legal), I’ve taken them. I did NOT need this.
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No, you didn’t.
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I have always feared this whole dependence on “the cloud.” It’s really just storing your stuff on other peoples’ servers. With email, there’s not much choice. But I hate knowing I ultimately have no control at all over all that data. Life on planet earth these days is very fragile.
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Thats a terrible thing! I too rely on my emails for so many important data!!
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Me too. It’s a mess. At least they still exist, but this is 5 years of saved data. At least they aren’t completely gone. I’ve heard of that happening too and in fact Gmail has an FAQ for “My email disappeared” and how to find it … if it can be found, that is. So it must happen often enough.
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Its totally strange that only the mails from you to yourself got deleted!
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This isn’t something I could have done accidentally OR on purpose. Which makes it even more upsetting.
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That is, indeed strange. Were any other digital clocks showing the wrong time? The only think I can think of is that perhaps there was a brief power surge and maybe your surge protector turned itself off to keep it from affecting any of the attached devices. But that doesn’t explain the emails that were missing. I hope you weren’t hacked or picked up some malicious virus.
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Nope. Just the living room, just the stuff working off that particular surge protector. And HOW did it delete ONLY emails addressed to me from me in folders? How did it do that?
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That is a real mystery.
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I found Gmail’s FAQ titled “My email disappeared.” They give you a whole list of places to look and how to search through secret caches. That’s actually how I found it in the end. So obviously it does happen often enough that it’s an issue. Which is really terrifying. So much for safety in “The Cloud,” eh?
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Weird. They didn’t say what might have caused it to happen? Well, at least it’s good to know where to look if it ever happens to me, as I use Gmail as well.
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Google doesn’t snitch on Google. They keep their secrets. I’d REALLY like to know how this could happen. Really really like to know.
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I don’t know, but that’s a cute clock. We had a Philco.
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It’s also a CD player and it has amazingly good sound. And it looks like an old fashioned TV, which is pretty cool. I don’t think they make it anymore. I need to put a pair of backup batteries in it, but first, I have to buy a bunch of whatever size battery it takes.
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I just realized that WordPress kicked you off my “following” list. I wondered why I wasn’t getting any of your posts.
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I lost a bunch of followers during the last week too. it’s another one of those inexplicable things.
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It’s the Parallax View!!
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I’m kind of into the whole conspiracy thing.
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